The New Guy (Again): Talking with Joe Fresh's Joe Mimran

If you’ve been in NYC lately, chances are you’ve been seeing safety orange shopping bags on the streets and ads announcing "Fresh style. Fresh price." The source of this pop color proliferation is Canadian import Joe Fresh, the clothing brand from Joe Mimran. While his name might not be as familiar as some American staples, you certainly know Mimran’s pedigree. He founded Club Monaco in Toronto in the mid-80’s, before bringing it into the U.S. and eventually selling the brand to Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. After consulting for private brands, Mimran’s next fashion venture took shape in a supermarket of all places, with the launch of Joe Fresh Style at Loblaws locations in Canada. Freestanding stores came in 2010 and now the brand is making its home stateside. We stopped by their Fifth Avenue flagship store on opening day to meet the real Joe and find out what makes this new brand tick. And we did get to that, just as soon as we were done discussing the wildly impressive Harry Bertoia sculpture screen that was original to the 1954 modernist building.

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The Bertoia screen that spans the width of the second floor

GQ Eye: When you first saw this space was the Bertoia installation a big selling point?

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** Joe Mimran:** Huge selling point! Then I find out its gone! Then I find out the historical board wants us to replace it, but replace it with some filler piece that was being assembled. It was cut into six pieces when it was removed so we had to bring each back and lift them through the second floor window.

Art is very much what our DNA is about. We support the Public Art Fund and helped present the New Museum Triennial this year. We did an event with the Warhol Foundation in Art Basel around Christmastime, so it’s a big part. I’m a collector and it’s a big part of my life. For spring we have these amazing short films from Deborah Turbeville, Ellen von Unwerth and Sue de Beer that get their interpretations on the collection. It’s nice because it helps to give our brand personality as opposed to just being another clothing brand.

GQ EYE: How would you describe the Joe Fresh brand or what should guys know about the brand?

** Joe Mimran:** What we want to be known for is certainly our pricing, which is a real big draw. But I think what we want to be known for integrity of design at our pricing. There’s a lot of fast fashion going on today but not with the same aesthetic as we would have, there’s a particular point of view, a filtering of trends, there’s hopefully a real voice to Joe Fresh as opposed to a conglomeration of just stuff. I think that’s how we want to approach the business. It’s how we built the brand in Canada to be what it is and nobody would have guessed we’d be able to do what we did there.

When I came here in 1995 with Club Monaco it was the same sort of thing with people saying, "What is that?" I remember one agency saying Club Monaco was such a Euro-trash name. That brand had a lot of integrity through its visual imagery, all the blacks and whites, and that was fueled by my love for black and white photography, which I used to collect. Now I’ve gone on to contemporary art and this brand reflects that. This is more about color, it’s a big part of the Joe Fresh brand, clean color in particular. Even the colors that we use, there’s a particular point of view on color. Sometimes it sounds very esoteric but it has to have integrity or I’m not very interested. So now the next big step is how to we convince New Yorkers we’re for real.

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The Fifth Avenue flagship entryway

GQ EYE: You’ve set up other stores in NYC already, in the Flatiron district and on the Upper East Side. How has the brand been received in New York so far?

** Joe Mimran: **It’s been amazing. We’re at Madison and 80th, which is a really counter-intuitive location for a value brand, and we are being as well received there as we are at Flatiron. And Flatiron is a very local neighborhood, as is Madison. In the site selection I was telling the team I didn’t want to go all where international brands tend to want to go. I want to become part of the city. And that is Upper East Side, Upper West Side, I want to be in in neighborhoods and I want to be viewed as being here, as being part of the city.

GQ EYE: Positioning a value-driven concept like this as a neighborhood store certainly differs from a lot of other brands’ thinking.

** Joe Mimran: **Exactly, a lot of brands, when they open hire a big band, they pay movie stars to come out for photo ops and the owners don’t know anybody at the party.

GQ EYE: I have to say I can’t remember the last store opening where the lines were as long for the fitting rooms as they were the bars .

** Joe Mimran:** For me it was like I knew almost everybody in the room and that’s a real event. It’s a proper store opening for the right people.

GQ EYE: Has the Joe Fresh man changed at all as you’ve moved the brand into New York?

** Joe Mimran:** Well we have not been strong in men’s as the genesis of the brand is mostly women’s, because it was started in a food store. When we started there 85% of the customers were women so men’s was really just an after-thought. As we’re moving into the New York market men’s is going to be a big focus for us because we think there’s a huge opportunity in the menswear area. I’m really excited about men’s, I think there’s a lot we can do and that’s going to grow for us.

GQ EYE: So what has inspired you or what is the creative direction in developing men’s?

** Joe Mimran:** It all starts at the beginning of every season with color and then it goes to prints. Color really moves, it’s so incredible these days. Yellow is coming up so strong this season, it’s not a great retail color but it is really a happy, optimistic color. It’s really interesting to see how the whole product lifeline is morphing, and trends seem to be on a slow burn these days. You’re not going in and out of trends as much. There are a lot of them but they’re all on slow burn, which is really unusual. So this whole color blocking thing, which has been around for three years is not going away. Paisley and embellishment as well. Prints are so huge, striping. And it is unusual because you used to have it then it would disappear.

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Joe Fresh menswear

GQ EYE: So now you can evolve it.

** Joe Mimran:** Right, I think you can really evolve it and it’s really exciting. And I think the whole active thing, something we’re huge in in Canada, I don’t think we’ve yet got credibility here. I really believe active is a big part of future dressing and the mixture of it with other items.

GQ EYE: We’re always interested in who men in the style world look to as stylish inspirations. Who or what do you consider influential on your aesthetic?

** Joe Mimran:** I’ve always been influenced by the 60’s. I think as a kid growing up in that time I would watch all those movies of the era. To this day I’m still influenced by that whole James Bond vibe. Our show for spring was based on Acapulco in the late 60’s. That whole Mad Men influence still feels right and Alain Delon and the movie Blow Up were big influences on me. To me it’s all of the icons of the 60’s.

GQ EYE: Do you have a favorite piece from the spring line?

** Joe Mimran:** I do, I love the boat neck cashmere striped sweater, I love the small floral patterned shirt, and I think those pieces are kind of definitive of the brand. I also like some of our basics; some of them are really strong but simple.

GQ EYE: I have to say the Slim Chinos have to be the best fitting ones out there at that price point.

** Joe Mimran:** Totally.

GQ EYE: We’d imagine this store and all of your U.S. expansion has been an enormous undertaking but what is plan is for the future? Are you looking to roll Joe Fresh out to additional areas soon?

** Joe Mimran: **I want to do more in New York, we’re looking at Brooklyn and Soho and Upper West Side. We really want to establish ourselves here. We have gotten calls from Spain, Russia, the Middle East and now we have to figure out where we want to go from here. Like I was saying there’s so much more to do here though. You know you have to earn the love from the consumer, you don’t just flip a switch and it goes on. You really need to work at it, you have to have integrity, you have to great design and hopefully it comes.

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